yes, discussion and understanding are good, and should flower in any open society.

our beliefs are expressed not just over coffee but through a country's political and social programs. When polled, more than 80 per cent of Swedes say they don't believe in God and more than 40 per cent explicitly identify themselves as atheists. Yet Sweden has some of the lowest homicide, poverty, teenaged pregnancy and STD rates in the world. It is a functioning liberal democracy with high levels of wealth, very little social unrest and a near 100 per cent literacy rate.

where social programs are inspired by religious belief (in the west), that's where you get higher rates of STD infection and teenage pregnancy. this is whiy belief matters, because a seemingly positive belief can have a very destructive outcome when socially enforced.

freda